Early successes of six farms that collaborated around Bramfield has inspired the extending of their efforts to form a full-scale farmer cluster, aiming to cover some 2000 hectares of farmed land. 

Following the Bramfield watercourse to the River Blyth, this group has ambitious aims of connecting wildlife across the landscape, building biodiversity into their farming operations, connecting with the local communities and ensuring that they are as sustainable as they can be.  

Early work of the initial group of six farms has led to some great wildlife success stories, including the re-discovery of a species thought to be extinct. With the support of Suffolk Wildlife Trust, the group has undertaken a wide range of wildlife monitoring and management actions that have had great results for biodiversity across their farms.

Buoyed by their successes, the group agreed in 2020 to extend the area of their focus towards Blythburgh, with a view to cover as much of the farmland along the Bramfield/Wenhaston watercourse, a tributary of the river Blyth that rises around Bramfield, as they could. The area encompasses Suffolk Wildlife Trust’s Church Farm nature reserve and is a much-varied landscape with interesting transition from clay plateau to a sand and gravel dominated coastal landscape.

Ponds: the cluster group sits on heavy clay land and has a high density of farmland ponds; restoration of neglected ponds has been a focus of the group for the last two years. The work has been accompanied by surveys which have found a stonewort species, slimy-fruited stonewort Nitella capillaris, that was previously thought to be extinct in the UK. Along with other rarities such as tassel stonewort Tolypella intricata, leading to the area being declared nationally important for stoneworts.

What are stoneworts? Complex algae that take a form similar to simple aquatic plants, they specialise in colonising bare substrate in ponds. Their oospores (seeds) can survive for hundreds of years in the buried sediment.

Arable plants: surveys of three of the farms have shown the area to be a stronghold for some of our rarest plants including field woundwort, dwarf spurge, sharp-leaved fluellen, round-leaved fluellen, stinking chamomile.

Arable flora struggles in modern farming systems but is doing well here in the lower intervention areas, especially around conservation cover crops. The group are targeting seed collection of the most interesting plants to ensure that they continue to provide a stronghold for these important species.

Farmland birds: the work the farms have undertaken includes a series of breeding and wintering bird surveys, these have shown that the area of these farms supports a number of red and amber listed bird species of conservation concern including; skylark and grey partridge in the arable fields and margins, yellowhammer and nightingale in hedgerows and scrubby woodland. The farms are working together to create scrub nesting habitat and provide winter food for these species.

Connecting the landscape: With a larger focus area, the benefits of collaborating as a cluster group can be better realised. The farmer members of the group will work together to connect habitats and manage these in a positive way.

Building sustainability: Farm sustainability will form a major part of the group's focus in the coming years, they will share knowledge and discuss techniques for farming sustainably, both from economic and environmental viewpoints.

Extending good habitat management: Having learned so much on their own farms about the important species that they all have, the larger group will be well placed to spread knowledge on good habitat management practices and encourage all the group members to practice these techniques.

Engaging with the local community: It is an ambition of all the farms in the group to increase their engagement with their local communities, both to increase understanding of the farming year and to enable the local people to appreciate the special wildlife of this area. There will be farm walks and an opportunity for residents to get involved in wildlife recording on these farms.